As laboratory and clinical technologies advance, an increasing number of medical and laboratory procedures are being performed by high throughput manual and automated procedures. Many laboratory or clinical processes and procedures are carried out using tubes and vials. Such procedures include blood sample collection and manipulation, cell culture growth and maintenance, organism growth and maintenance (e.g., Drosophila (fruit flies)), scintillation counting or radioactive samples, and collecting chromatography fractions, for example. In these procedures, tubes and vials often are loaded into holders or racks configured to securely hold them in place, and allow manipulation, transport and storage of the tubes or vials.